About this Site

Women's Work:Focus on Caring

The work of women has been hidden and undervalued as a contribution to the provincial economy. Within this framework, a major case study will address women's work in care-giving with a particular focus on the work of nurses and their professional and union activities.

Our features on this theme include the following:

The Nurses vs. McKenna, 1991-1992: By the 1990s, nurses had been officially unionized since 1978 when the New Brunswick Nurses Union (NBNU) was formed. This feature continues the story of nurses' activism that began in the 1960s and continued through the 1970s and 1980s as nurses campaigned not only for better wages and working conditions but also to ensure good patient care during times of government cutbacks. [ more ]

How Nurses Learned to Wear Two Hats: Professionals and Unionists: Nursing traditionally has been a women's profession built around ideals of service and subordination. In New Brunswick beginning in the 1960s nurses began to question poor pay and working conditions, thus beginning a process that would result in the creation of the New Brunswick Nurses Union in 1978. [ more ]

Interviews with Nurses: Interviews with nurses about their work experience and how it has changed over time help us understand and appreciate women's caring work (both the work of the religious orders and that of secular nurses). Interviews with nursing leaders focus on key developments in the struggle for collective bargaining and union rights (ex: creation of nurses' collective bargaining groups in the 1970s, key points of struggle [e.g. 1991-92, McKenna wage freeze]). This section of our website will present excerpts of some of these interviews. Readers will also find short summaries of important labour conflicts, a selection of newspaper articles and some photographs of an exhibit at the New Brunswick Museum (in 2009) which will focus on nursing history in the province. [ in preparation ]

Acadian Women Activists and the Labour Market: Since the end of the 1960s, several women's groups have actively campaigned to help Acadian women gain access to the labour market and to ensure fair working conditions for women. In this section of our site you will be able to read excerpts from memoirs, reports and letters prepared by women activists over the course of the last several decades. [ in preparation ]